Raising kids? Then your taxes are way too high

10:38 AM,
Aug. 20, 2013

Written by

Ramesh Ponnuru

Would-be tax reformers on Capitol Hill are taking a "blank slate" approach to the issue. Dave Camp and Max Baucus, the House Republican and Senate Democrat in charge of the tax-law committees, say that every tax break is on death row unless a strong case can be made for it.

This method rightly recognizes that not all tax breaks are the same: Some of them have better justifications than others. What the blank-slate approach misses, though, is that not all supposed tax breaks are even tax breaks.

The tax-reforming duo counts the deferral of taxation on contributions to 401(k) retirement plans as a ...